- This La Vie Claire kit from the mid-1980s
is held up as a beacon of cycling cool.
And for me, it represents the transition
from retro cycling to the modern era.
And in no small part, that's down to one of the riders
that wore it, Greg LeMond, one of cycling's
great innovators, and a man that we should all thank for,
if nothing else, introducing cyclists
to Oakley glasses.
(rock music)
This is the headquarters of Oakley
in Foothill Ranch, California.
They've very kindly just been giving us a tour,
and we've left not just with a video in the bag,
but also some sunglasses, including these absolute icons,
and a modern pair of Flight Jackets.
But we also have not just those to compare,
but some kit as well.
(fingers snap)
La Vie Claire, which you've seen, but also
the brand new Jawbreaker shorts jersey and ARO5 helmet
from Oakley to compare retro with modern.
But what I need now is a bike.
(rock music)
Yeah, all we need is a Greg LeMond Look TVT from 1986.
How hard could that be?
Yeah, well, it turns out, actually, that trying
to find a mid-'80s ex-Tour de France race bike,
in rideable condition and with an owner that's willing
to lend it to you, is quite hard.
However, stroke of luck, an email to website The Radavist,
whose owner is based right here in L.A.,
has given us a lead which we are following up right now.
The Cub-House in Pasadena, so home to Team Dream,
might have just what we're looking for, a bike to compare
to the one that I've got in the trunk right now,
my Canyon Aeroad, which admittedly has not
seen the Tour de France, but is basically a murdered-out
replica of a Team Katusha race bike, right down
to the SRAM Red eTap and the Zipp 454 wheels,
an excellent point for comparison to our retro bike.
(slow electric guitar music)
How cool is this place?
(singer vocalizes)
This is the man kind enough to lend us one.
This is Sean Talkington.
Sean, tell us a little bit about how you got the bike,
actually, in the first place.
- Sure, yeah.
I've been looking for one for quite some time,
and I was looking for a replica, and I'd actually given up
after a couple years, and a friend was at a bike swap meet
at a local velodrome, and they found an actual
team bike that was ridden by Éric Boyer.
And I called the guy right away, I was out of town,
and I was kind of on a vacation and stopped what
I was doing and drove straight out and bought it.
- [Simon] Nice!
- Yeah, and so now it just hangs in the air, and...
- But is it rideable?
- I think so.
Yeah, I mean, we'll find out.
You're gonna give it a go.
- I'm gonna be so gentle on it, don't worry.
You'll be fine.
(Sean laughs)
(rock music)
Greg LeMond fans and cycling history buffs,
you will no doubt be screaming at your screens
right now, and I hear you.
This is quite clearly a Greg LeMond from 1992
when La Vie Claire no longer existed, and LeMond
was instead racing for the super team of the day, Z.
But don't worry, I have come prepared.
Let's go ride.
(rock music)
Here we go, then.
Maiden pedal strokes on Éric Boyer's
'92 Tour de France team bike.
Now, you'll notice that my eyeshades have temporarily gone.
But don't worry, we'll get back to them
and La Vie Claire a little bit later on.
They have been replaced, though,
by the equally-beautiful Oakley Razor Blades.
I'm sure there will be cycling historians once again
up in arms, saying that Greg LeMond was wearing
Oakley Mumbos by 1992, and yes, you would be right,
but give me a break here, okay?
These Razor Blades came out in 1985,
and LeMond wore a pair just like these
to victory in the Tour in 1989.
The following year, he moved over to these guys, Team Z.
And it's fair to say, I think, that this kit probably
hasn't had all that many admirers over the last couple
of decades, most people probably preferring
the simpler aesthetic of wool jerseys from the earlier era.
This stuff, being made out of lycra, having
taken advantage of sublimation printing, which allows
for a more complicated design, and let's face it,
more vibrant colors.
But you know what?
I think that now, it looks pretty darn cool,
as do these Razor Blades.
Now, I remember from adverts at the time saying
these were the first customizable Oakleys,
so you could change the frame and the arms and the lenses,
to name but just three components.
And in total, it said there were over 22 million
color combinations to choose from, which is probably enough
even for the most ardent of sunglasses perverts.
And it's gotta be said, when wearing them,
they feel very modern indeed,
which is more than can be said for this bike.
(funk music)
I'll be honest, though, I learned my lesson,
when riding Pedro Delgado's Vuelta-winning vintage Orbea,
not to go too hard on these bikes,
because that one, well, that one broke.
So I'm going far more gently on Sean's bike here.
But even so, you can still tell
that this was a proper race bike.
Yeah, it's a little bit more flexible in the bottom bracket,
but the handling's still razor-sharp.
What I think is easy to see on this is that Boyer's bike
is actually made out of steel, and LeMond's team
had infamously ridden carbon fiber bikes
made by US brand Calfee the previous year.
So it seems slightly inexplicable that Boyer
would go back to steel in 1992.
Maybe it was a comfort thing, because
this is a very comfortable bike, in spite of the tiny little
Vittoria Corsa CX tires pumped way over 100 psi.
Maybe it's the steel frame, maybe it's the aluminum wheels,
or maybe it's this really rather comfortable retro saddle.
Now, if we're after something a bit more quantifiable
when feeling like the handling's good and feeling
like it's a bit flex-y, you might be interested
to know the weight.
A quite-poorly 9.36 kilos,
which is a good two kilos more than my Canyon Aero.
The weight, though, isn't actually the biggest difference
between retro and modern, nor is the fact
that this has only got 14 gears as opposed to the 22
on my Canyon, nor the fact that the smallest gear here,
this one, is still a really sizable 42/21.
Although today, it's probably a good thing
that it's not got any easier ones, because,
were I to have to change gear, I may well
come unstuck with my downtube shifters
compared to my wireless electronic eTap.
But in spite of all those, there is a much more significant
difference between the retro and the modern eras.
(echoing drums)
(electronic music)
Aerodynamics.
It's the story that's dominated tech for the last few years,
and it's changed bikes and racing forever, far more perhaps
than any other innovation from the last 50 years.
I mean, this frame, these wheels, even the handlebar
and stem, all allow me to go faster for the same effort.
And if you're comfortable working in watts,
at the same racing speed, I've been putting out
about 30 watts less, and it's all done, of course,
by careful shaping of the tubes, which,
they don't really look like tubes anymore,
but they're all carefully shaped to allow the air
to flow more smoothly over the bike.
And yet, despite the huge increase in surface area
of the frame and the wheels, it is still
significantly lighter, 2.4 kilos in the end.
And that, of course, is down to the different
materials used, carbon fiber instead of steel.
That will also underestimate just how far carbon fiber
manufacturing has come in the last 25 years as well,
the types of carbon fiber and, particularly,
the construction methods as well.
A bike, though, is only part of the aero story.
Clothing can also make a significant difference,
and an aero jersey like this one, which is tight-fitting
and thoughtfully designed, can make potentially another
20-watt saving over that retro kit from the past.
Add in an aero helmet, which can save another
handful of watts, and you're potentially looking
at about a 50-watt saving over that retro kit.
And if you think about it, that's possibly
upwards of 30% of your total output.
But with helmets and clothing, there's also
another hidden saving, cooling.
(singer vocalizing)
♪ Oh, sweat away ♪
♪ Sweat away ♪
Now, despite the fact that an aero road helmet
has a wind-cheating design, it will actually
end up sucking more air over your head
than that retro lid from the '80s.
I mean, sweating doesn't even come close
to describing that one.
And when you think, that mushroom monstrosity was sourced
from eBay, and so it probably has another 30 years
of someone else's sweat in it, well, it just sounds
really bad thinking about, doesn't it?
(slow rock music)
Now, admittedly, helmets were a rare sight
in the peloton of the '80s and the early '90s.
But jerseys themselves were also ridiculously warm,
and one interesting thing that I took from looking
into all of this, was that apparently Greg LeMond
was the first person to put a full-length zip
into a cycling jersey.
Now, the Prendas-produced replicas that I'm wearing today
have them, but prior to LeMond, a jersey zip was there
just to be able to get the thing over your head.
And now, I think it's fair to say that a full-length zip
is just the tip of the iceberg, if you'll pardon the pun,
because the fabrics themselves are getting ever lighter,
ever more ventilated, as well as aerodynamic.
(slow percussion music)
Has all of this new tech changed racing, though?
Well, certainly if you drop a modern-day rider
into a Tour de France peloton from 1992,
they would have a considerable advantage.
In the modern day, all riders have the option of aero kits,
and almost all of them take it, meaning that the bunch
is on the level, and that level is faster.
Now, I'm rapidly getting out of my depth here,
but if wind resistance increases to a cube of velocity,
that means that the faster you go, the more power
you have to put out for less of a difference,
i.e. it takes more extra watts to go
from 50 to 52 kilometers per hour than it would do
to go from 45 to 47 kilometers per hour.
Therefore, it's actually harder to make a difference
in the modern peloton.
You have to have aero kit in order to play the game,
but maybe the game has changed because of the aero kit.
(funk music)
But yeah, maybe racing has changed.
But there is one component of it that definitely hasn't,
as important today as it was for LeMond and Hinault
and Merckx, and Anquetil before them, style.
So as promised, that brings us right back
to where we started with the Oakley Factory Pilot eyeshades.
They were launched in 1984,
before clipless pedals, remember?
Before polystyrene helmets, even.
And in my opinion, they're no longer showing their age,
which is more than can be said for the product
of another very similar year, me.
Now, I think there is a very definite link to the modern-day
Flight Jackets to these original eyeshades,
and I think these look as good with modern kit
as they do with the retro, quite frankly.
You can probably tell, they were modeled originally
on the motocross goggles, except they had arms
instead of an elastic strap.
And there was a little bit of a gap between the glasses
and your face to get a bit of airflow going on.
But there perhaps wasn't all that much, and so for sweatier
individuals like myself, it was useful that they came
with a sweat pad that went along your brow.
And that's interesting, actually, because
there is a very significant difference
between these Factory Pilot eyeshades
and the modern-day Flight Jackets,
and that is that I haven't had any problems
with sweating, even for me on this really hot day,
partly because of increased ventilation behind the lenses,
and also because of that cool little advancing nosepiece
that actually lifts the shades away from your face
when you're going at slower speeds.
(electronic music) (whistling)
I've gotta say, you know, as much as I love
a retro wool jersey, I'm super pleased that the style
of the late '80s and the early '90s is now
having a profound influence on what we're wearing today,
because in my book, it's super cool.
And, as well, say what you like about the effects
of aerodynamics on modern-day racing.
When you wear aerodynamic kit to just go
for normal bike rides, and you ride an aerodynamic bike,
I can't see that there's a bad thing
about going faster for less effort.
It certainly feels pretty good to me.
Now, do make sure you give this video a big thumbs up.
Stay tuned to GCN, as well, if you want to see
that behind-the-scenes look at Oakley's Foothill Ranch.
Some super interesting stuff there on the show.
Do make sure you give this video a big thumbs up
if you've enjoyed it, and if you wanna watch another video,
check out that on-screen now.